IMF and World Bank must act fast after Covid caught policymakers napping Tide went out for global economy in 2020 and just about everybody was caught skinny-dipping
WTO to appoint first female boss as shortlist narrows to two With UK’s Liam Fox eliminated the contest is now between Yoo Myung-hee and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Further 150m people face extreme poverty by 2022, warns World Bank Covid-19, climate crisis and war combine to reverse decades of progress on raising living standards
IMF chief says world economy faces long ascent from Covid crisis Kristalina Georgieva warns against premature withdrawal of government measures
Creditors must wake up fast to threat of emerging market debt crisis Zambia could become the first country to default on its debts amid the fallout from Covid-19, but it won’t be the last
World Bank announces $12bn plan for poor countries to buy Covid vaccines Initiative aims to ensure low-income countries are not frozen out by rich nations
China’s industrial profits lift markets; Uber wins London licence; pound rallies – as it happened Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Coronavirus pandemic has wiped out $3.5tn in work income, says ILO UN body figures show people in Americas and lower to middle-income nations hardest hit
UN warns of lost decade without Covid economic recovery plan Austerity policies will choke off recovery and risk a double-dip recession, says Unctad
Lack of Covid help for poor countries will haunt west, says UN aid chief Sir Mark Lowcock fears impact will fuel grievances, conflict, instability and refugee flows
Liam Fox reaches last five in race to head WTO Ex-UK international trade secretary and prominent Brexiter faces female frontrunners from Kenya and Nigeria
New Zealand in Covid recession after worst quarterly GDP fall on record Finance minister says figures don’t reflect the thousands of lives saved and reduced burden on health system
Governments should avoid Covid spending cuts and tax rises, says OECD In report on global economy, thinktank suggests extra borrowing is needed into 2021
Chinese investment in Australia plummets 47% in a year as diplomatic tensions rise Researchers have found Chinese investment in Australia has fallen at a much faster rate than in other countries
Could the US and Chinese economies really ‘decouple’? The buzzword makes it sound as if disentangling the world’s two largest economies were simple, says academic Isabella Weber